Chris Hearn

What a 2020 this has been, am I right? Who would have thought that the year would start out with a world-wide pandemic unlike one that has been seen since 1918, and that by late spring we would see so much of the Western world in complete revolt. And, really, there doesn't seem to be any other way to put it. There does seem to be a revolution going on in the streets. Can we call it the 'American Spring'? Whatever you want to call it, it's huge. Seismic, as some might say. And it's all because of Black Lives Matter.

As Black Lives Matter protests sweep the world it was inevitable that they would hit my city of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The Justice 4 Black Lives rally was billed as a peaceful protest, and for the most part, yes it could be described as that. There were no riots, outright violence, people marched peacefully, and there were no major incidents. It is estimated that 18,000 people showed up at the Manitoba Legislative Building on June 5 to protest against racism, especially by police. The cause was just. Black Lives DO Matter. And, it was nice to see so many people out protesting against racism.

Well, another day, another controversy involving race revolving around a short video clip that is being used as unquestioned proof of how terribly racist people can be. This time around, we have a tale of two unrelated Cooper's: Amy and Christian.

Is there anyone out there who actually wants all of the restrictions being placed on so much of the planet as the result of the Covid-19 pandemic? No. The answer is no. The vast majority of people do not want to live under restrictions imposed by governments. And that is completely understandable.

I am so disgusted and disappointed at the moment about the situation around Kyle Larson. For those unaware, NASCAR driver Kyle Larson was iRacing on a live stream on his computer and said the N word. And fall out has been swift and, if you ask me, ridiculous.

What the heck is going on? How on earth does a microscopic virus bring the world to its knees like this? And how on earth has my usually shielded city of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada end up being involved in all of this? These are the kinds of things that happen somewhere on the other side of the planet, in exotic countries. Usually, the victims seem millions of miles away and end up being just numbers that show up somewhere beyond the headlines. Not this time. This time, we here in the center of Canada, isolated out on the prairies, are part of the story. It’s hit home. We are doing what so many others in the world are doing, which is waiting patiently (and not so patiently) for the risk to die down so we can go back to being less than 6 feet apart from each other. At the moment, we are all vulnerable, as vulnerable as those across the planet who we normally can’t relate with. This is truly a world wide experience. Fortunately, however, there are far less zombies than anticipated. All the movies tell us that future pandemics all involve turning into zombies. There has not been a single zombie sighting yet. Many of us have been preparing for a zombie apocalypse. We didn’t prepare for this!